Nothing To Lose
by ChibiChibi-Chan
Summary: Set after book 7... Mysteriously the wizarding worlds biggest hero now... has disappeared. Rumors start to fly about the disappearance of the famous Harry Potter in the wizarding world. Months before Ron and Hermione are about to tie the knot they run int
1. Chapter 1

Nothing to Lose

**_Set after book 7... Mysteriously the wizarding worlds biggest hero now... has disappeared. Rumors start to fly about the disappearance of the famous Harry Potter in the wizarding world. Months before Ron and Hermione are about to tie the knot they run into a familiar face in the muggle world. _**

Ron shook off the cold that was starting to get to him and quickly started down the busy street filled with other witches and wizards. The scene had reminded him quickly that he hadn't found something to buy for Hermione and knew that Christmas was coming up soon. He looked around to see if he could find some place that would contain something of interest for his fiance. Quickly he walked into the warm building of Flourish and Blotts, nearly running into a stack of books. He started to look around once he had warmed up a little and started to think about what to get Hermione

"She'll probably think I took the easy way out, buying her a book and all," he sighed as he looked through the selection, "probably has read about half of these anyway."

Ron stopped as he came upon the rather large Harry Potter section. Book ranging from biographies to where Harry Potter could possibly be. He reached out to grab one of the books when someone jumped him from behind. Before Ron lost his balance completely the brunette jumped off of him and laughed.

"I didn't expect to find you in here, that is... unless you were Christmas shopping, the easiest way you could think of," Hermione stared him in the face, sure she was right.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about? You know I wouldn't take such an easy way out of a special occasion like that," he looked away from her to the books, "What would your parents think if I did something like that?"

Hermione considered the question and laughed, "They would think that you took the easy way out for sure. Besides, you don't need to worry about impressing them by buying me something expensive, just something that took awhile to consider."

Ron looked at her and sighed knowing that he had been caught. He tried to think of something to keep the silence from forming until Hermione reached over and picked up one of the books. After skimming through a few pages, she shook her head and put the book back.

"These people talk as if they know him personally," she sighed, "I'm surprised they're able to keep writing and selling all of this rubbish."

"Well it was expected that he would become ten times more famous after... that," Ron trailed off and thought of the last time he had seen his friend. Hermione took note of the look on Ron's face and took his hand to lead him out the door and back into the cold air that filled Diagon Alley. Instantly he shivered and frowned at the fact they were outside. They proceeded to walk through the busy alley, past a stand with stacks of The Daily Prophet waiting to be bought. Ron took a quick look over at the paper and read the headline about a sighting of Harry Potter in a cave in Africa. The thought of his friend being in such a place made him want to laugh and at the same time find out who decided to print such lies.

"They're getting worse than The Quibbler now," Hermione sighed and continued walking. Ron looked at her and frowned again.

"What is your hurry, Hermione!"

"Did you forget that we were having dinner with my family tonight?"

"Y-Your family? Tonight?" Ron stared at her in disbelief, "When did we decide this?"

"I clearly recall telling you about it at the start of this week," she stopped walking and looked him in the face. Ron knew the look on her face meant that he was never going to win this and was better off going along with it.

"Oh, yes! Now I remember," he laughed and continued walking.

"You are obviously lying about that," she caught up with him and became frustrated, "This is the first time they will really get to meet you and you them. How could you forget that I told you about this?"

Ron stopped suddenly and grabbed Hermione to stare her in the eyes. She looked at him in surprise, expecting him to fight with her over the issue. He took a breath and hugged her.

"You're right, I did forget and I'm sorry about that, ok," he asked for her approval of his appology and found her smile give him such.

"Then we best hurry," she hurried off with him following close behind to leave Diagon Alley.

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I suppose this will be officially my first HP fic... since my other one was deleted off of her... Anyway! Started to write this fic while thinking of how to start another HP fic and listening to Billy Talent's Nothing to Lose. Really doesn't fit what I'm writing...well not really... some here, some there, but no... if anything the other song I was listening to while writing this would probably fit more, Standing in the Rain... also Billy Talent. Awesome songs... Anyway, I don't care if there are mistakes... if you read my profile stuff... you'd understand why. Anyway, I intend to continue this if there is interest in it or not. ...might revise this when I wake up tomorrow..


	2. Chapter 2

Nothing to Lose

Queasiness started to set in on Ron and his grip on Hermione's hand started to tighten a bit. Not only were they going to dinner with her family but she chose to go there in a car. The idea had discomforted him once she finally was able to get him into it. Thankfully nothing that reminded him of his time in the flying car with Harry his third year had happened but now the worry of sitting and eating dinner with her family made his stomach turn slightly. Hermione screamed when Ron finally tightened his grip on her hand a little too tightly. She glared at him when he turned to look at her.

"I'm sorry," he managed to squeak out and looked back out the window. There were no more lights passing by them but a house sitting outside the car, almost threatening to Ron. Hermione opened her side of the car's door, stretched out, and paid their driver. Ron hadn't moved at all, he stayed in his seat glued to the view of the rather large home.

"It took me forever to get you in here and now you don't want to come out," she asked him, frowning. He quickly moved over to where she had been sitting and got out of the car on her side. Hermione closed the door and off went the car down the street. Ron went back to being mesmerized by the home.

"So, this is the place," he muttered and looked over at her.

"That place? Not in a million years," she pointed behind him at another home that was smaller in contrast with the one across the street from it,"Come now, I know mother will enjoy meeting you! Father might be a bit curious about you but I told him that you didn't come to the muggle world too much."

She pulled him by his arm with difficulty and then stopped to see him with possibly the most traumatized look on his face. Millions of thoughts went through his mind when she had mentioned telling her parents that he didn't come to the muggle world too often. Surely they would ask where they would live after they marry, and then where the children would go to school, then how many children they would have...Did Hermione tell them fully about his family? What were they going to eat? Would they use forks or these sticks that someone told him about when he was at school? Would he embarrass Hermione and do something odd? He stopped this train of thought when he felt her tug his arm nearly off.

"Really, Ron, come on," she kept pulling on his arm.

"Do they eat with forks or with sticks? I remember that someone told me that muggles eat with sticks! I don't know how to do that!"

"Well, I don't think that would be tonight," she stopped pulling his arm now sure what had practically glued him in the middle of the street, "You're not worrying about little things like that are you?"

"To be honest, that and more."

"Well no, there will be no eating with sticks," she laughed at the thought of them doing so and Ron being completely lost, "From what mother told me it was just going to be a small dinner, nothing big."

Relief came over him slightly as the thought of eating with her parents was possibly going to go better than he thought. He followed her closely behind to the home he had pointed to before and felt a tad less tense as they walked up to the front door of the house, past the garden that possibly in better conditions would have beautiful flowers rather than dead lifeless looking plants. They stopped and Hermonie turned around quickly and looked to see if anything was too out of place on Ron's person and without warning brushed a few strands of hair out of his face. Ron nearly jumped as her hand reached at his face, distracting him from looking at the christmas lights that were blinking at random intervals around the outside of the house. She smiled as he finally realized it was her and turned his back to him once more to ring the doorbell. Commotion started to reach the door on the other side and then a small moment of silence came until the door finally opened to reveal a woman whom Ron immediately recognized as Hermione's mother.

She reached out to Hermione with both hands and hugged her, "Oh Hermione! We didn't expect you to be here so soon!"

"I couldn't wait to come! Nor could Ron," she looked over at him as her mother let go of her finally. Mrs. Granger looked at Ron for awhile and smiled as she remembered seeing him at the train station practically every year her daughter went off to school and when she returned. She quickly ushered them inside, closed the door behind them, and informed them that dinner would be awhile.

"Your father is in the den, dear. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you and Ron," Mrs. Granger smiled even more at the young man boosting his spirits a little bit more.

Hermione took Ron's hand once more and lead him to where her father was. Along the way Ron caught sight of pictures adorning the walls of the hall and caught glimpse at one that looked like Hermione a few years younger than when he had first met her at Hogwarts. A smile came across his face as he took note that it was a picture of a celebration of some kind with the young Hermione holding a stuffed animal and more presents around her, also ripped open.

"Unicorns, eh," he asked her out of no where, teasingly. She stopped and looked at him questioningly until he finally filled her into what he had seen, "You had a unicorn stuffed animal in that picture over there."

"Oh, yes," she finally caught up with what he was talking about, "That was from my sixth birthday."

"Still have it," he asked with a smile on his face. She didn't answer and walked him into the den where her father was sitting reading the paper, stopping promptly as he heard them enter. He immediately got to his feet and greeted his daughter in the same fashion as his wife had when they arrived. Ron waited for her to remember that he was in the room and introduce him to her father.

"I've been well, of course you know that," she smiled at her father as he let go of her and finally took notice of Ron, "Oh, this is Ron, the boy I told you about many times. I'm sure you remember him."

Mr. Granger looked at the red headed young man and nodded, "Yes, I remember seeing him and meeting his father. His name's Arthur, correct?"

Ron was slow to realized that a question had been directed at him for the first time he came into the home. For some reason words would not form in his mouth leaving him to nod silently. Mr. Granger looked at him for awhile more then continued, "Ah, he was a very... interesting fellow, your father. So what is it that you do then, for money that is, Ron?"

Once more he found it hard to speak and saw Hermione giving him looks from beside her father, urging him to say something. Ron's mind was on the lose once again leaving him to random thoughts that were hardly related to the situation in front of him. Among them came the random thought of where he left his favorite pair of socks that he had lost track of a month ago, why cheese had so many holes in it, if Harry were in a cave in Africa or really at his uncle's home in hiding, the list of things that started to come to him became nearly endless until Hermione's voice stopped it at once.

"Ron, are you coming down with something," she was now standing in front of him looking at him worried. Her father gave a light laugh and patted Ron on the shoulder.

"It's okay, I understand what's wrong," he told his daughter, "the poor boy is just nervous, that's all."

"I suppose so, he's been like this since we got to the door. Well, actually, before that," she looked from Ron to her father.

Ron felt like he wanted to die on the spot. He hoped Hermione be gracious enough to do him in before he continued to look like a fool in front of her parents, wait until they were alone and just get it over with. Nothing of the sort happened, Mrs. Granger walked in and informed them that their dinner was waiting for them. They followed her to a table to which Hermione and Ron sat across from Mr. and Mrs. Granger and then started eating and talking with Ron trying to stay out of the conversation as much as possible. He poked the chicken that sat on his plate as Hermione talked to her mother about the two of them living together then moving on from that subject to that of the wedding they were going to have. To his surprise even Mr. Granger joined into the conversation that he himself tried to talk so little about to Hermione, informing her the last time she had started that he wanted her to just decide everything for the event since he would lose out to her anyway. As he moved on to the salad sitting on his plate they had also moved on to talking about where they would take permanent residence after they were married. Hermione had expressed her opinion on this to him on a few occasions and was not sure herself if they should find a place closer to her family or Ron's until Ron blurted out one day that they could simply apparate to either one. It had seemed that now she was considering a place close to her family causing her mother to start onto another topic he knew was bound to come up.

"You can't simply go and get a place, not right away! You should wait and then consider how many children you will have! Imagine finding a place and then finding it doesn't suit you well," Mrs. Granger stopped and smiled even more than she had when she saw them at the door, "How many grandchildren are we to expect?"

Ron had stopped playing with the remainder of his food and stared at Hermione waiting for her reply along with her parents. Her face had gone a bit pink at the question and then she put on a look of consideration. She sat there for awhile keeping their attention the entire time and finally cleared her throat.

"Well, I'm not sure about that yet. I suppose I'd like a decently sized family, something like Ron's perhaps," Hermione said these words in the clearest manner as not to confuse anyone that was now looking at her, Ron the most. For the first time the entire evening Ron had found his voice and wasn't going to let the conversation die there just yet.

"What do you mean a decent sized family like mine," Ron shot her words back at her in a confused manner. The sound of his voice started Hermione's parents slightly and they too looked at her to find out what hidden meaning she had placed in her words.

"Well you know, not exactly as big but not exactly small either. I suppose it would be safe enough to say three or four," she trailed off, picking up her glass and taking a sip out of it calmly.

"Three or four," he repeated her words back to her.

"Yes, I'm fairly certain that's what I said," she continued with her clam manner and placed her cup back on the table, "You really haven't put much input into the matter."

Ron felt her parent's eyes on him as he looked at Hermione trying to form some words, "Well I... I thought we wouldn't be talking about that until after the wedding you know. Not that I don't want kids you know! Really I do! I just don't know... you know... how many and all."

"Well that's good to hear," Hermione finished the conversation with a hint of annoyance in her voice. It was at this point Ron knew better than to continue and hoped her parents knew this as well. Thankfully Hermione had moved the conversation to a new subject that Ron kept himself out of as soon as it started, resuming his playing with his food. Having nothing to do was becoming annoying to him, he had nothing to contribute to their conversation about Hermione's cousin that seemed to have done something rather interesting though for the life of him he was unsure what they were really talking about. The thought crossed his mind to take out his wand and keep himself amused somehow but remembered that Hermione had asked him to try to not do anything too out of the ordinary in front of her parents. He looked for something to pass the time between sitting there and leaving, and found it in looking around at the random muggle items inside the home.

Just looking at the things hanging on the wall and sitting against the wall, he was sure his father would go insane and want to touch all of it. Sure enough if he told his father of what he had seen he would be questioned about all of it. 'How did it work? What did it look like? Did you see anything else?' his fathers fascinated voice that he was used to hearing when he found some muggle item started to echo in his head. His heart sank a bit as he recalled his father bombarding his best friend with questions on usages of muggle items, Harry would smile and try to correct him causing his father to smile too at the revelation that the item was used for something else. With little warning his thoughts continued with Harry and Hermione with him at school making him feel absolutely nostalgic at the memories that played in his head. Eating together, talking together, getting in trouble together; all memories that he could think of that involved the three together from their first year to the last time they had seen Harry before his great disappearance, which to him didn't seem too great at all.

Hermione caught the frown that had made his way onto Ron's face and with little hesitation she stood up with everyone's attention once more on her, "Well then we'll come back tomorrow evening and sort out the rest of the invitations then. I'm tired and I'm sure Ron is as well."

"You're leaving? Why not stay if you're that tired? Ron can sleep in the guest room," Mr. Granger offered to her and Ron causing looks of concern to come up on Ron's face.

"I'd love to, but I'm sure we'll do fine on our own," she smiled at her parents and then at Ron. He knew she had decided this for him for more than the reason she had given. The rest of them got to their feet and bid farewell to each other leaving Ron and Hermione to start to walk down the street a little ways until Hermione stopped them. "You looked really bored in there and the only time you entered the conversation was when we were talking about children."

"Well I didn't find anyway to come back into the conversation when you started talking again about the wedding," Ron looked back at the Granger home and sighed, "I did horrible in there. They probably think I'm a waste of time for you."

"If you had paid attention to the conversation at all you would have heard my parents speaking very kindly of you in between all of that. I think my father absolutely likes you and mother as well," she said all of this and watched Ron light up a bit more again.

"Really? I mean I thought I did so bad you know because I-"

"They understood. Believe me Ron, they are very happy that I found someone like you to be with," Hermione added in quickly before Ron put himself back into his depression, "Anyway, lets go to a coffee shop near by. Its my favorite one. It will probably put you in a better mood afterward."

Ron looked at her and nodded, "We won't be walking will we? I'm so tired of doing all these things."

"Well unless you want to risk the chance of being seen apparating then be my guest. But honestly its simply a fifteen minute walk from here to there," she tugged his arm before he could argue back. She had been wanting to take in too much scenery as far as he was concerned. Every time they could simply apparate or go by any other magical means from one place to another she insisted they go a muggle way to their destination. Then it finally occurred to him what the hidden meaning to this, she thought she'd never do these things again when she was with Ron. He looked at her and saw how sullen her face had gotten as they walked passed various muggle buildings that had either one light on or none. Her hold on Ron grew a bit tighter giving him reassurance that though she would miss all these things, she wanted to be with him more than anything.

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Yeah I stop here before I write more mushy stuffs... I'm in a very HP mood so you can expect the next chapter before the end of the month... maybe... I hope... if school doesn't get in the way too much...

ChibiChibi-chan


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